January 31, 2024. Dr. Gianluca De Fazio recently released a new digital project: Memorializing Racial Terror: Lynching Markers in the United States. This project catalogs and maps all the historical markers commemorating victims of lynching in the United States, thus documenting recent efforts by...
January 30, 2024. Archeologist and historian Kathy Liston examines the life and death of Joseph Holmes in her essay '‘Lynching a Legislator: The Joseph R. Holmes Story.‘ Born into slavery, Joe Holmes was elected at the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, where he promoted radical...
October 17, 2023. In the past few months, the Racial Terror website underwent a thorough revision to update its content and expand the historical information we have about lynching in Virginia. In particular, all of the entries about each lynching victims have been edited and enriched with...
September 14, 2023. Beginning in 2021, James Madison University and the Library of Virginia started a collaboration to retrieve, digitize and transcribe more than 300 pages of primary source materials documenting lynching in the commonwealth from 1866-1932. The materials are now freely available...
In collaboration with JMU Libraries and the College of Education, we are releasing a set of lesson plans for K12 schools in Virginia that can be used to understand lynching in Virginia and its legacy. Social Science and English teachers are invited to peruse these resources to teach the hard...
Dr. De Fazio is the organizer of a virtual panel titled 'Researching, Remembering and Honoring Lynching Victims in Virginia' for the next African, African American & Diaspora Studies (AAAD) Conference at JMU. The panel will take place between 1:30 and 3:00PM on Friday, February 18th, 2022. The...
December 16, 2021. Retired teacher, author and editor Steve Schlanger wrote an essay, Anatomy of Lynching, on the 1892 murder of William Young in Fluvanna County. In this essay, Dr. Schlanger relies on newspaper accounts and archival sources to examine how the lynching unfolded.
Members of the "Lynching in Virginia Curriculum Project" team presented their work at the 2021 Open Ed. Conference! See their pre-recorded presentation at the bottom of this post. Presentation title: Teaching Hard Histories for Racial Healing: The Lynching in Virginia Curriculum Project Speakers:...
August 5th, 2020. Today the Racial Terror: Lynching in Virginia website has officially migrated to a new domain, with improved graphics and features! Check out the new Data Visualization tab and the expanded database, now including cases as far back as 1866.